James A. McDougall

James Alexander McDougall (19 November 1817-3 September 1867) was a member of the US House of Representatives (D-CA) from 4 March 1853 to 3 March 1855 (succeeding Joseph W. McCorkle and preceding Philemon T. Herbert) and a US Senator from 4 March 1861 to 4 March 1867 (succeeding William M. Gwin and preceding Cornelius Cole).

Biography
James Alexander McDougall was born in Bethlehem, New York in 1817, and he settled in Pike County, Illinois in 1838. He practiced law in Cook County, where he befriended fellow lawyer Stephen A. Douglas. In 1843, he was elected Illinois Attorney General, and he was re-elected in 1844. McDougall took a steamship to San Francisco, California during the Gold Rush, and he served in the US House of Representatives from 1853 to 1855 and in the US Senate from 1861 to 1867, serving as a Democrat. He retired to his boyhood home in Albany, New York after leaving the Senate, and he died in 1867.